White Chocolate Coconut Pecan Cookies

There are days I walk past a bakery cake showcasing whimsical cupcakes, scrumptious scones, beautifully decorated layer cakes, and various giant cookies the size of a large breakfast pancakes, perfectly lined up in a row. The excitement I get from just looking at these freshly baked goods is (sometimes) as satisfying as being lured into buying one. Then there are those days I crave a really good baked good. Knowing exactly what I want, if I cannot find it in the bakery case as an impulse buy the only other option is to bake it at home.

Yesterday as my son and I walked past the Honey Bear Bakery case after an afternoon well spent at the library, all I really wanted was a satisfying coconut cookie. Too bad the bakery doesn’t sell coconut cookies. My mind was made up and a baking mission was born in that moment. 10 minutes after we left and came home, my oven was preheating and my Kitchenaid mixer was already creaming the butter and sugars. I didn’t care that I would have to leave the house again in 30 minutes to pick up my daughters from school, no matter what I was going to get my cookie.

It’s funny, when I have a serious craving for something, I can get a bit obsessive. But with this obsessiveness, a certain measure of creativity flows out of me which is truly a form of self-therapy. Therapy with a satisfying sweet treat as a reward always makes my day better.

What started out as a strong craving for coconut cookies resulted in adding pecans and a few white chocolate chips to make these cookies super-awesome-good. The texture is dense but soft with caramel flavored edges, almost like butterscotch. Using a medium cookie scoop (approx.. 1 tablespoon in volume), I was able to get 30 medium sized cookies from this batch – which was perfect in my opinion to last our family through the weekend.

If you love a really good cookie, like the type of cookie that actually has the power to give you a sense that all is right in the world, this is the cookie for you. Have a great weekend!